What is the difference between the times of the Gentiles and the fullness of the Gentiles?
Question 10036
Two phrases in the New Testament sound similar enough to be confused but refer to entirely different realities. “The times of the Gentiles” and “the fullness of the Gentiles” describe distinct aspects of God’s programme, one relating to political dominion over Jerusalem and the other to the ingathering of Gentile believers into the body of Christ. Confusing them produces a muddled eschatology. Distinguishing them sharpens the prophetic picture considerably.
The Times of the Gentiles
The phrase appears in Luke 21:24, where Jesus says: “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” The context is the Olivet Discourse, Jesus’ extended teaching about the future of Jerusalem and the events surrounding His return. The “times of the Gentiles” refers to the period of Gentile political dominion over Jerusalem, a period that began with the Babylonian destruction of the city under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC and that continues, in varying forms, to the present day.
Daniel’s vision of the great statue in Daniel 2 provides the prophetic framework. The succession of empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, with Rome’s final form yet to appear, represents the entire span of Gentile political authority over God’s covenant people and their land. The times of the Gentiles will not end until Christ returns to establish His kingdom, at which point the “stone cut without hands” (Daniel 2:34-35) will shatter Gentile world power and fill the whole earth. The recapture of the Old City of Jerusalem by Israel in 1967 was a historically remarkable event, but it does not constitute the end of the times of the Gentiles in the prophetic sense, because Gentile influence and pressure over Jerusalem continue, and the full resolution awaits the Second Coming.
The Fullness of the Gentiles
The phrase appears in Romans 11:25, where Paul writes: “a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” The context here is entirely different. Paul is explaining God’s dealings with Israel and the Church during the present age. Israel has experienced a judicial hardening, not total but partial, and not permanent but temporary. This hardening will persist “until” (achri hou) a specific condition is met: the fullness of the Gentiles coming in.
“Fullness” (plērōma) here refers to the full number, the complete complement of Gentile believers who will come to saving faith during the Church age. When the last Gentile whom God foreknew would believe has been brought in, the Church will be complete, the Rapture will remove the Church from the earth, and God will turn His attention back to Israel. The hardening will be lifted, and “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26), referring to the national conversion of the Jewish people alive at the Second Coming of Christ.
The Distinction in Summary
The times of the Gentiles is a political and historical concept. It describes Gentile dominion over Jerusalem and, by extension, over the geopolitical landscape in which Israel exists. It began with Nebuchadnezzar and ends at the Second Coming. The fullness of the Gentiles is a soteriological and ecclesiological concept. It describes the completion of the body of Christ through the ingathering of Gentile believers. It began at Pentecost and ends at the Rapture. The two periods overlap but are not identical. The times of the Gentiles extends through the Tribulation and ends at Christ’s physical return to the earth. The fullness of the Gentiles ends before the Tribulation, when the Church is caught up to be with the Lord.
The practical result of confusing these phrases is a blurring of God’s distinct programmes for Israel and the Church. If the fullness of the Gentiles is identified with the times of the Gentiles, the Rapture loses its pretribulational character, and the distinction between the Church age and the Tribulation becomes unclear. Keeping the phrases separate preserves the dispensational clarity of the prophetic programme and reinforces the imminence of the Rapture, which depends on no prophetic sign except the completion of the body of Christ.
So, now what?
Both phrases point to the same underlying reality: God is sovereign over history and is working to a timetable that He alone knows. The times of the Gentiles reminds us that human empires rise and fall under His direction, and that none of them will endure beyond the day He has appointed. The fullness of the Gentiles reminds us that the Church’s mission has a definite conclusion, that every soul who will come to faith will come, and that the Lord is patient because He is unwilling that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). The believer’s task in the meantime is unchanged: proclaim the gospel, live in readiness, and trust the God who has not left a single promise unfulfilled.
“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” Romans 11:25